Having good grades at a university is a really good thing. It gives you access to scholarships, which of course allows one to continue their studies.

Yet sometimes it can be very stressful. There is, of course, the fact that everyone simply begins to expect you to do good or to be able to answer questions. That’s not so bad as much as it’s occasionally irritating.

Then there are circumstances like this: This morning I learned that the letter that our language instructor handed out was a formal, yet personal invitation. To an annual awards banquet of the foreign languages department.

It starts like this:

Dear Stephen Meyer,

The Department of Modern Languages and Literatures requests the honor of your presence at its annual awards banquet …”

Goodness gracious! O.O

I thought that this letter was the same for everyone in class and that it was simply a (incoming redundancy!) formal form letter. Nope, no such luck.

Am I complaining? Not necessarily. Am I stressing out? Well let’s see. Now I need to prepare for a possible speech in a foreign language, or at least an inevitable request to have a small conversation, at an honor banquet.

Yep, that’s a bit heavy doc.

(why yes, that was a reference to the 80’s.)

~Steph

Technorati Tags: languages, language, foreign language, Korean, 한국어, Korean Language

There’s not a great deal to post about. The semester is drawing towards a close and I’m actually going to miss one person in particular, but I mostly just focus on completing my classwork. I haven’t done much aside from that, thus I haven’t had much to post about.

Today was the study abroad info session for us students who are going abroad. I’ll be in South Korea for two weeks. It still doesn’t quite feel real.

There are one or two more sessions to attend before the end of the semester.

I’m debating on the purchase of an Aiptek A-HD camcorder. It advertises itself as a 720p camcorder, but I’m not necessarily sure that I believe this. Regardless, it’s $120 for a camcorder. The catch? The battery life is only about 30 minutes. Wow, that’s just awful.

Another piece of news that I don’t remember if I posted about, but I dropped my karate class. Instead of simply no longer attending class I formally dropped it. Getting my rib cracked was just way over the top. I won’t be going back during any future semester, though I may poke my head into the Kenpo dojo during the summer. So far, though, I’m just toying with that idea.

I now exercise by using a work out DVD rather than jogging around the campus. There’s no particular reason for this other than the fact that it’s easier to motivate myself to work out inside of my house than it is to get my butt to go outside. Also, it was incredibly cold for several days… we’ve only finally started having true Spring weather in the last few days… and that made it entirely impractical to walk & jog outside. The DVD is a good alternative, especially when you really don’t have the time for all of the other stuff.

My writing classes are frustrating the heck out of me. No need to go into detail there, I’m just fed up with writing 4 or 5 page reports.

If I could do mathematics then I would be in Engineer. NO doubt about it. Not just because of the writing, but because I love that kind of stuff. Well, dyslexia and neurlogical short circuits… what’re ya going to do? heh.

…and that’s pretty much that. It’s been nearly as dull as this post has made it sound. About the only thing keeping my sanity is the somewhat regular lunch that I have with a Korean friend of mine. I’m going to miss that gal.

Later folks,
~Steph

Technorati Tags: college, university, student, life

Today I officially dropped my karate class. Maybe I’ll look for the Kenpō or, better yet, the Tai Chi class during the summer to experience something new.

I received a snail mail a couple of days ago inviting me to Lambda Sigma, an honor society. I was reading through the website and decided that I won’t be joining it, but it’s kind of flattering, I suppose, to have my hard work acknowledged. Thanks folks.

Spiffy, eh?

Good night, world.

Technorati Tags: Lambda Sigma, Honor Society, College, University

Last night was the first karate class of this semester, and it was a good, tough class.  Doing karate for two hours non stop is quite an aerobic exercise, and I’m surprised that I lasted for the majority of the class.

We welcomed the new members – of which there were a surprising MANY – and at the end of the second hour we received our certificates from passing the test at the end of the previous semester. 

I sweated, I learned things, and I had one heck of a work out.  All in all it was a good evening.  You can read about it in detail on my KarateKa Blog (where I also have a quick photo of the certificate, if you’re curious).

The only other class that I have had thus far is my Korean Language & Culture II class.  The instructor is different this semester of course, and it seems like he will be more strict than our previous instructor.  His handwriting is also considerably different and that adds an interesting challenge to the class.  So far he seems like a decent guy, but I suspect that he’s not going to have much patience.  We’ll see, I could be wrong about that..

This week we are reviewing the alphabet, so thankfully it is a very easy week.  We did have a pop quiz this morning that consisted of answering the questions that he wrote on the blackboard, but it was very simple.  I would have missed one, but he called on me to answer one that I knew.  Anyway, it’s all about learning so I don’t care too much if I get a few wrong so long as I learn the correct way to do / say / write / read it.

We are going to begin using the Korean language to say a number of typical classroom phrases, so I already have a new set of vocabulary to memorize.  That’s going to have to be something that I study this weekend.

Oh, and the Korean instructor has decided to change the book for this semester.  This should be interesting…

That’s all for now.  I’ll have another update about classes and other college stuff next weekend (not this weekend).  I may also take some photos, but I don’t know what else to snap some pics of since I already have a photo album that covers (most of) the main university campus (Pittstate photos).

Later folks!

Technorati Tags: college, university, korean, karate, martial arts, sports

After a class change that nearly forced me to drop at least one class, I now have a final class schedule for the Spring 2008 semester. You’ll probably notice that there are no psychology courses in this line up. That’s because I’m considering changing my major, and I need a break from all of the psychology stuff for now.

Frankly, if I could get away with it – which I can’t – I would take only the Korean Language & Culture class and the karate class. That would be the six credit hours needed for part time, but unfortunately my funding is based on my attendance. That’s both grades and credit hours, and I’m a ‘po boy ya know?

• Mondays
8:00 – 8:50 AM : Korean Language & Culture II
9:00 – 9:50 AM : The Craft of Fiction
2:00 – 3:15 PM : General Literature
• Tuesdays
8:00 – 8:50 AM : Korean ..
7:00 – 7:50 PM : Karate (Intermediate)
• Wednesday = Monday’s schedule
• Thursday = Tuesday’s schedule
• Friday
8:00 – 8:50 AM : Korean ..
9:00 – 9:50 AM : The Craft of Fiction

So a lot of writing and studying. I wouldn’t be surprised if we have to do a lot of senseless, silly reports on some nonsensical books for the English class. Far be it for a class to focus on its subject matter and not fluff up its schedule with gads of boring “blah”.

~Steph

Grades are in for the Fall 2007 semester. Unfortunately I broke my 4.0 GPA run, but I’m still doing pretty good me thinks. Hopefully next semester I will be able to bring my GPA back up to 4.0; we shall see!

It will be a challenge because (of course!) I am enrolled in Korean Language & Culture Level 2. These classes require a great amount of time and effort to pass with a good grade.

Here are my grades for Fall 2007:

• LIFE SPTS: KARATE(BEGINNING)
Grade: P
• DRAWING I
Grade: B
• KOREAN LANGUAGE & CULTURE I
Grade: A
• LIFETIME FITNESS CONCEPTS
Grade: A
• ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY
Grade: A
• Credits: 13.00
• Semester GPA: 3.7500
• Total GPA: 3.8889

One “B”, and it brings me down so much. Harumph! I insist on 3.9999! lol Yeah, yeah, I know that it doesn’t work like that.

Anyway, there’s that. Here’s to crossing fingers for next semester…

~Steph

well this semester is pretty much over. there’s one more week and one more test and that’s it. then it’s one month of vacation before the Spring semester begins.

so..

• passed my karate test. technically i hold an orange belt in shito-ryu karate-do genbu-kai now, but they didn’t have a belt in my size on the night of the testing so i don’t physically possess the belt. whoops, but oh wells.
• in all seriousness i have almost definitely failed my drawing class. i hated that class all semester and it’s the one thing that made this semester lose some of its enjoyment. go figure.
• i don’t know what my score in Korean is, but i think that i passed the test. the instructor is leaving for another state this weekend, so i won’t be seeing our test results. i’ll just see my final score when the university gets around to posting them. it’s sad, i really liked this class.. it was so much fun, and our instructor was a great person. i’ll actually miss it all.
• abnormal psychology isn’t through yet. we have one more test next thursday. current score in this class is 85/100, which is pathetic compared to what i absolutely could have made otherwise but hey, the next test should bring that up to 90 or so, so it’s all good in the end.
• oh, and “life time fitness concepts”… i guess i passed that? i have no idea, nor do i know what my grade will be in that class.

I am concerned about my GPA as a result of the drawing class and possibly the final grade in lifetime fitness. after all, i attend the university on funding that i receive based solely on my grades. on the other hand i guess this shows that i’m only human and that i have my limits too.

it’s been a strange semester. it’s simultaneously been both the best semester, thanks almost specifically to the Koreans on campus (you’ve all just been great ^.^), and the worse.

sure i’ll have to repeat drawing some time in the future, but i have a better idea of what to expect and hell, i may just create some drawings before re-enrolling into that class, put them up some place, and then use those drawings at the end of the semester for my out-of-class work. that way i have no farking rush to get crap done. gods, but i can’t express enough how much i loathed that class’ out-of-class requirements.

imagine being required to calculate a 30 to 60 minute mathematical formula every day, at home, as a class requirement for no other reason than the instructor loves their subject too much and thinks that no one should think that it’s a big deal and should have all of the time in the world for their oh-so-precious bull shit. then at the end of the semester, just because nothing else that you’re doing could possibly be of equal or greater importance, you have to do five extra long equations during dead week.

ain’t that cute? yeah. only it they were drawing assignments and not mathematical equations, but they’re both the same to me and now you’re getting the idea.

anyway enough of that. now i’m just getting all fucking emo.

this isn’t the tone that i had in mind when i started out this post. i’m kind of starting not to care though, ya know?

i need that fucking vacation.

I passed last night’s karate test and will receive my orange belt tomorrow evening. They didn’t have my size on the evening that I took the test. More info & photos later.

Why oh why did I take an art class? No, I remember why. It was in hopes of picking up the ability to draw simple illustrations for the stories that I write. Bah! What an idealistic fool I can be!

I just spent about an hour or so trying to draw one of the three required out-of-class drawings. It didn’t go so well…. at all.

Sheesh, this is a nightmare.